The presents you are most excited about giving.?

[KungFuBustle]

I am giddy! Despite a very tight budget I am so excited for Christmas morning, or giving two gifts in particular.

The Bike for DS. Black bmx, his first big boy bike. I got this for £13 new using vouchers. He's not expecting it but he will love it.

The Hugh Laurie - Let Them Talk CD for DH. £3 second hand. We've been watching House and he's loving Hugh playing piano saying how talented he is.

I get butterflys thinking of these being opened. What are you looking forward to giving?

[champagnegoldfinch]

Lovely story, Keep. I am sniffling at the keyboard!

[Keepthechangeyoufilthyanimal]

Well…better late than never, I promised I would come back and update you all with how I told family I am pregnant - sorry it's taken so long!
With my family (who I knew would go the most crazy) we did the group photo thing….so 14 of us in the living room at my mums on christmas eve…I suggested doing a group picture on my camera/tripod which DH and I set up while everyone arranged themselves for the picture.
We made out we were faffing about with the settings and would jump into the picture at the last minute. My brother provided the perfect opportunity by saying 'so what are we doing here….123 cheese or what?' to which my DH said 'no…we're going to go with something a bit more up to date than that…how about everyone says 123 Keepthechange is pregnant' just as he took the picture
As expected, everyone went wild screaming and crying, especially my mum and sisters! The picture is hilarious, you can just see shocked faces on the women of the family and the men are looking a bit puzzled/confused…apparently some of them weren't sure if DH was joking!
It all worked out perfectly and exactly as expected, it made for a very special christmas for us all. Once everyone had calmed down we did the tripod/group picture thing with everyone smiling with glasses of champagne so we have a fantastic group picture which turned out really well - bit of a miracle to have no eyes closed or people not looking at the camera when there's 14 people plus dogs in the picture!

With DH's mum (who knew nothing of our IVF so me being pregnant was a complete surprise for her) we wrapped up a scan picture in a frame for her and gave it to her on christmas morning.
She just looked at it and smiled, said 'you're kidding?' in a really happy way and started crying, and came over to hug my belly (which was actually kind of awkward for me as I was sitting on the sofa so it ended up more like she was just hugging my crotch!)

DH's Grandma and Uncle we did the framed picture thing too which we gave to them on christmas day…she opened it and was really confused bless her! She'd never seen an ultrasound picture before (she's in her late 80's) so I think she had no idea what she was looking it. DH pointed out, well that's a head, and thats a hand etc' and she was still none the wiser, so MIL said 'It's a baby mum, they're expecting'
She had a bit of a joke about it at first while it sunk in, I think she maybe didn't think it was planned, saying how young we were etc (we are 28 and have been together for 12 years and married for 4!) Then later had a bit of a cry and was so happy

With FIL and step mum and that side of the family, we just arrived at their house on New Years day after a 6 hour drive. Luckily everyone was waiting there to see us before they all headed back so we took the opportunity while everyone was there together and did a bit of a quick no-fuss announcement by handing round a photo album of all the scan pics and letting everyone figure it out. They are not as much into big surprises like my family and didn't know too much about our IVF journey so it was a more subtle congratulations, not a big screaming crying event like my family.

Sorry for the massively long post! All worked out great with the announcements and everything seems to be going well with the pregnancy so far…I am now 17 weeks and we've had a few scans where everything looks great…our closest friends and my employers now know and we are just waiting to see if everything looks ok at the 20 week scan before making it common knowledge to other friends, colleagues and other relatives. All family members are so excited and looking forward to a new member of the family

I hope everyone had a great Christmas and New Year (seems a distant memory now!) and all of your lovely thought out gifts were well received - would love to hear some reactions to the special presents you all picked!
Thanks again to you all for your lovely wishes

[MortifiedAnyFuckerAdams]

Ahh lovely Keep!

Im looking forward to giving SIL x2 and DSis little wooden hearts homemade from my dd, with a little 'auntie' quote on.

[FairyJen]

keep my parents did the photo thing to my dgp. Took my df took a picture but rather than saying smile said x is pregnant.

That pic of my dgp is wonderful

[CreamyCooler]

I got quite teary reading Keep's post. How wonderful x

[becks5109]

ps keep that bought a tear to my eye - well done you guys and best of luck x

[becks5109]

We are currently fostering a dog from a charity. Our gift to the kids is that we have decided to keep him and adopt him! We are going to surprise the kids on Xmas day with a home made adoption certificate - they will be ecstatic! :)

[MammaGnomes]

when DP parents died we bought SIL out of her half of the house. whilst we were sorting through some of PIL things we came across a box full of hand written recipe cards that my MIL had written.

for xmas we have bought SIL an orla kiely recipe box and I will fill it with the recipe cards.

so excited about it. her and her OH are quite well off and they buy everything they need so always struggle to come up with ideas for them

[DoubleLifeIsALifeOfSorts]

I'm giving a Eccoiffier Christmas eve house... It's a plastic toy house set out for christmas eve, so with Christmas tree & presents and father Christmas reindeer and sleigh... Ds (3) will love it as he's entranced with all the Christmas rituals. I am hoping it will be his dream present.

The only thing us that it doesn't have a hollow chimney for Santa to go down which Ds would ADORE... They are definitely missing a trick there, as chimneys play an important role in Christmas eve...

[Keepthechangeyoufilthyanimal]

I will Kungfu
Some more ideas I've found online that I like are:
taking a group photo of all the family together and say something and hold up scan pic just as the pic is taken so capture everyones shocked faces
have one of those personalised photo calendars made…put relevant family photos in each month e.g. mums birthday in Feb, family holiday pic in august etc. then scan pic in due date month

Only thing is, I want my family at least to all find out at the same time rather than trying to time them all opening a present from us at the same time as I know that just won't work with 12 people!

I think we will just wrap up a framed scan pic for DH's mum as we will be telling his mum, grandma and uncle together and they are not big shock/surprise sort of people.

Might do your suggestion of grandma/grandad/aunty etc gifts for FIL and that side of the family as I think they will like that :)

Amazing loving the sound of zookeeper experience too!

[KungFuBustle]

Zoo keeping sounds awesome, do they let adults do it too?

You must let us know what you choose Keep!

[AmazingBouncingFerret]

It's DS's birthday on Wednesday. We bought him a zoo keeper experience day for the Sunday after.

I fully expect him to wee himself in excitement.

[Keepthechangeyoufilthyanimal]

Oh KungFu, bless you that's so lovely! Glad I helped a bit
Thank you all so much for your congratulations and kind wishes, it's quite overwhelming in a nice way as no one knows yet so we haven't had all this so far!
I am going to do some serious youtube research and get some ideas!
Some of those videos make me cringe they are so cheesy but for this situation I almost don't care, the cheesier the better!

I am loving reading some of your lovely christmas surprises, and great to hear that many have been bargains too - that makes it that much better I think!

[Lilicat1013]

Congratulations Keep, that is lovely.

I have a present I am giving my husband that he will love but since he is wondering around near me it is probably best not to mention it here.

For my youngest son I am most excited about giving him a wave drum. He loved it at Stay and Play, he would speed crawl over to it and just be so delighted with it. Recently they have stopped putting the wave drum out so he hasn't been able to play with it. He has one for Christmas though and will just be over the moon.

For my older son it is his Playmobil penguins. I got a penguin set for £5 on sale in Asda. He loves penguins and this set fills with water. His favourite thing about real penguins is watching them splash, he will love having toy ones that he can splash with.

I can't wait to see their faces.

[peaz]

I made my mum a scarf, which took forever. It's got a diamond pattern, and it wasnt particularly hard but it took about an hour a night for 5 weeks.

I'm looking forward to giving DS1 a dragon from Riders of Berk which breathes out steam. He will LOVE IT!

Looking forward to the Dave Grohl autobiog that I got DH. Even more looking forward to reading it myself!

Keep, that is great news. YouTube has some great ideas for pregnancy reveals.

[WaitingForMe]

The restaurant where DH and I got married sells steak etc cooked on a "hot rock." We used to go there loads but haven't been since DS was born. But I bought the rocks on Groupon so we can have it at home. He's going to love it and I'm so excited to give it to him.

[Northernmonkeys]

Whoops! Apologies for double post. Bloody phone.

[Northernmonkeys]

Congratulations Keep. Wishing you all the best

Teaandcake, where did you get your Elmo onsie?

I'm looking forward to giving lots of the gifts I've bought so far and the surprise treat of a ride on the Santa Expresss at the NRM in York for DS (3) on Christmas Eve!

[Northernmonkeys]

Congratulations Keep. Wishing you all the best

Teaandcake, where did you get your Elmo onsie?

I'm looking forward to giving lots of the gifts I've bought so far and the surprise treat of a ride on the Santa Expresss at the NRM in York for DS (3) on Christmas Eve!

[grabaspoon]

Best presents will be photos for friends. They had a family photo shot and could only afford the cd and a few prints. Using groupon I've got a couple of the photos printed and framed for their walls.

Also a mp3 player for dc 6. He loves music and hope he'll love it.

[Splatt34]

Keep definitely wins!
My DD age 3 all she wants is a pink sleeping beauty princess dress. Which she will get on a clothes rail with a load of other dressing up outfits & accessories which I've collected over the year (mostly secondhand).
THE dress is beautiful and I just know she's going to spend all day prancing around in it.

[CrotchStitch]

DS(9) is getting the new xbox from us and my parents. He thinks he may be but is not 100%.
A couple of his friends want one but are not having one and have been telling him he won't get one either. The shallow part of me is thrilled that for once DS will be top dog
I am also hanging about waiting for the Black Friday deal on a keyboard. He loves music and would desperately love one but I have told him there is not a cat in Hells chance. If it's cheap enough he will have it :)

[cheesypastaplease]

Aww keep that is lovely, congratulations! I would give them all a special present eg key ring, mug, for best gran, auntie, uncle and get everyone to open it at the same time. yes I watch these videos on YouTube and they make me bawl

Dd who loves to play doctors is getting a Doc Mcstuffins set which she will love, and then we will all have to be patients for the day!

[Justshabbynochic]

Lovely news, keep! Can't wait to hear how it goes.

[georgie22]

Brilliant news Keep! Made me feel a bit teary!! Congratulations and enjoy telling your family.

I was pregnant last Christmas but didn't find out until NYE so gave my parents the news to start the New Year!!